My Final Reflection

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INTRODUCTION

I am a 6th grade bilingual ELAR (English and Language Arts and Reading) teacher in an intermediate school. We are not elementary, and not middle school yet. My campus has 5th and 6th grade together.

I designed a full online class using Canvas as my LMS (Learning Management System) platform. This platform will help and support my students to learn and be successful. The course is divided by weeks (modules) where students can easily navigate and do all their assignments.

My content of the course is a mix between robotics and literature. In my class, students will be learning the elements of plot in a fiction story and make a real life connection by using Sphero Bolts robots. This means that my students will learn the theory, analyze it, develop critical thinking and then implement their understanding into a coding program. Doing this, will make that my students can see how what they are learning can be applied in a real-life situation. My intention is to nurture and support critical thinking into my students. They will learn the theory and then apply that theory to help them to develop a solution to the proposed challenge. In this case, make a robot perform a scene of a short fiction story of their own.

Instructional Design Theories

There are several instructional design theories that had been used for teaching for quite some time. In his book, Bates (2015) talks about these theories and adds a not-yet- totally-defined one called Connectivism and Downes (2007) tries to explain it. From all these theories (Objectivism, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism, Connectivism) Bates(2015) makes emphasis that the last two theories are the ones that are best suited to develop and sustain online learning environments. I agree with him, because Constructivism invites the learning environment to develop learning in a collective way and by solving projects or challenges. As for Connectivism, it makes the connections between the learner and all the information that now, thanks to the Internet, we have access to. Thanks to this, the learner can build their own learning.

Personally, I can say that I didn’t choose ONE single theory. What I like about Bates(2015) is that he presents plenty of information and I can make my own judgment. Based on this, I believe that I chose small pieces of each and other theories. I consider myself a person that takes the best of each and if theory A and pieces of Theory B and C help my students to be successful, that is what I will do. If I were to be asked which one I like the most, I would have to say Constructivism with a dash of Cognitivism.

UbD Plan Implementation

After learning about Understanding by Design (UdB), I was surprised that this is the way that I normally work with my students. I try to identify the content my students need to understand (The curriculum I have to follow). Then, I think of how I will be able to achieve that. Then I act upon it. For me, it is important that my students are engages, their learning is interesting or at least meaningful. I try to put myself into their shoes and create lessons and assessments where they can express themselves, make the connections to their life and embrace that learning can be fun and beneficial. UdB goes over all these ideas and puts it together in this amazing framework.

I believe I implement UdB plan in my lessons by having the end in mind and start from there. Analyze what my students need to learn and develop a lesson where they can understand and express themselves in a comfortable way, and yet in a meaningful manner.

Importance of Online Learning

In many aspects, COVID-19 changed the world and in education, I believe that it pushed an area that was still reluctant to flourish: online learning. At the undergraduate and graduate universe, online learning has been a great solution that solve a vast number of needs. This is not new. Online learning has been become better and better. From the point of view of an elementary teacher, schools were not pushing online learning. With COVID-19 this had to change. I see now that we have hybrid instruction. Students are learning to own their learning and continue to be successful at home, without a face-to-face teacher or classroom. I am not going to discuss if it has had good or bad consequences, but what I can say, is that if we can manage to be successful with this new way of teaching at elementary and secondary level, it can open a wide options of different learning environments. Students will have access to much more content and learning at their own pace. Teachers will be able to personalize more their instruction and students can always rely on the teacher and friends for clarification.

I think that the relevance of providing online learning for students is high, because that is where we are going now. I believe the future is going to have more online learning classes at all levels (in addition to face-to-face classes). This will help all students to learn and develop different skills and not only the ones that schools “have” to teach.

Enduring Understanding

After taking this course, I can take with me that it is important to have the goal in mind, try  my best for my students to be successful and be as clear as possible when communicating with my students. I learn that when I and my class  is clear, I am setting my students for success. I learn that an online class can be as amazing and engaging as a face-to-face class. I learned that online classes can be endless and there are plenty of opportunities where students can l earn in many and different ways. I also learned that there are serious and rigorous research studies behind online learning and that things are evolving that way. I can say that this class helped me to put in order all the practices I was putting already in action and gave me structure to become a better and successful teacher. This has been a great class that helped me grow in my online design and creation process.

References